District of



(No Model.)

B. 0. FORD & G. T. JACOBS. ROLL PAPER HOLDER AND CUTTER.

No. 429,566. PagtentedJune 8, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDl/VARD C. FORD AND GEORGE T. JACOBS, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ASSIGNORS OF ONE-THIRD TO STEPHEN D. BAILEY, OF SAME PLACE.

ROLL-PAPER HOLDER AND CUTTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 429,566, dated June 3, 1890.

Application filed May 13, 1889. Serial No. 310,507. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARD C. FORD and GEORGE T. JACOBS, citizens of the United States, residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Paper Holding and Severin g Machines and we do declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others to skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. 7

Our invention relates to that class of paper holding and severing machines in which the paper is mounted in the shape of and furnished from a roll controlled bya suitable tension-bar and adapted to be severed in the desired lengths by a cutter bar or knife, against the edge of which the paper is forcibly drawn by the user.

Our invention consists in the essential parts and combinations'thereof hereinafter set forth and claimed, our invention extending, however, to all other combinations, which, though different from those which we have hereinafter particularly illustrated and described, are the equivalents thereof and adapted to realize, either wholly or in part, the uses and advantages of our invention.

In order to make our invention more clearly 3o understood We have shown in the accompanying drawings means for carrying the same into effect. c

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a paper holding and severing ma- 5 chine embodying our invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view of the same.

- 3 is a sectional view illustrating a retainingpawl or equivalent retaining device, which may be employed in our machine to prevent 40 the return of the paper and backward movement of the roll.

Referring to the drawings, A indicates a base of suitable character, preferably forming a part of and movable with the machine,

although the standards, hereinafter described, may,if desired, be attached immediately and permanently to a counter or table. At a proper distance apart, according to the length Fig.

of the roll or rolls which it is desired to support, are secured to said base the standards or brackets B B, each provided with one or more bearing-pieces C, the upper surfaces of which-are, according to one feature of our invention, curved with the convex side up ward, as clearly shown in the drawings at c. Said standards also carry the longitudinal tension and knife bars T and K, which are preferably formed in one piece, as by casting, or are soldered or brazed rigidly together, although said bars may be separable.

The tension-bar T is so situated relative to the bearing-surfaces c that a roll of the ordinary size will, when placed in position with its axis resting upon said surfaces, bear against the tension-bar on a line approximately level with said axis. Rolls R are shown in such position in Figs. 1 and 2, their axes r resting upon and supported by the upper, outer, and least-inclined portions of the surfaces 0. As the paper is used up and the 7 roll decreased in size, the axesr will approach the tension-bar T and reach gradually por tions of the surfaces 0 which are more and more inclined, the effect of which increased steepness of incline will be to cause the -7 5 roll to be pressed more strongly against the tension-bar. The degree of such pressure is, however, dependent also upon the weight of the roll, and as such weight diminishes with the decrease in radius we are enabled to ob- 8o tain a practically uniform tension, which is of great practical advantage in the use of the machine. As the axis 1" moves down the bearing-surfaces c, the tension-bar T will engage the surface of the roll on lines successively higher and higher above the level of the axis, and we have found it desirable to make the tension-bar double, providing it, in addition to the upper edge t, with a supplemental edge if, differently situated relative to and lower than the edge 25. When the roll has I been reduced to, say, one-third of its original size, the line of tension will be transferred from the upper edge 75 of the tension-bar to the supplemental edge t, thus insuring that the roll shall not be drawn underthe tension-bar to such degree as to cause it to be jammed and held from turning by the ordinary pull which the user will exert upon the paper.

Certain features of our invention can be practically availed of, however, when the roll is supported in j ournal-bearings in the wellknown manner.

Much difliculty is experienced in many machines intended to hold paper in rolls from the fact that the end of the paper is difficult to be reached and grasped by the fingers, it being usually held tightly beneath the knife and against the roll. I11 our invention this difficulty is obviated, the knife being normally situated at a distance from the tension-bar and from the surface of the roll when the latter is in place and in contact with said tension-bar, thus permitting the thumb and finger of the user to be extended beneath the knife and to grasp the free edge of the paper which is situated between the said knife and tension-bar. Any necessity for applying the hands of the salesman (which in many trades would be soiled) to the surface of the roll to turn it is hereby obviated, and the operation of drawing out and severing the piece of paper desired is rendered quick and certain.

In order that there may be no possibility of the free end of the paper clinging to the surface Of the roll we provide the frame (or the tension-bar or knife) with longitudinal projections which are situated between the knife and the surface of the roll, as shown at P. (See especially Fig. 2.) The end of the paper is, when the roll is first applied to a machine, threaded between said projections P and the knife K, and as the paper is always severed by the knife on a line outside of or beyond said projections, the free end will always be sustained by them and held at a distance from the surface of the roll, though below the knife, where it can readily be taken hold of by the user.

As an additional convenience in securing a hold upon the paper at its free end for the purpose of drawing out the desired quantity, we may form openings or recesses k in or above the knife-bar adapted to admit the thumb of the user to seize the paper and give the initial movement to the roll in an obvious manner.

In order to prevent an accidental backward movement or rolling up of the roll, which may occur when the axis 0" is upon the outer and more level portions of the surfaces 0, we may provide means for clamping or holding the free end of the paper. Such retaining device adapted to prevent the return of the paper may be formed in various ways, of which we have shown the preferred form. In Fig. 3 the retaining device consists of a pawl or dog having a tooth or edge (1, adapted to bear against the underside of the free end of the paper and to press the same against the under side of the knifebar or other equivalent part of the frame. Said dog is pivoted at Ll to the end of the projection P, and is so controlled by a spring or by a weight (Z as shown, that it will constantly by its edge'd engage the paper. lVhile thus adapted to prevent the return of the paper the forward movement or drawing out of the same is freely permitted by reason of the situation of the pivot cl relative to the edge d.

Any desired number of rolls may be mounted upon a single set of standards in a Very compact and neat manner, as indicated in Fig. 1, it being simply necessary to provide the standard with the requisite number of bearing-surfaces c.

In order to still further increase the capacity of the machine for furnishing a variety of qualities and sizes of paper, we have devised what we term an intermediate bearing. (Shown atI.) Suchintermediatebearing consists, preferably, of a standard or bracket adapted to be secured to a suitable base, provided with an extension having a curved bearing-surface a, corresponding in contour with and situated at the same level as the surfaces 0, with which it is designed to co-operate, and provided, also, with projections P, having the same function and situated in line with the projections I. The surface a of this intermediate bearing is of sufficient width to support independently the inner and contiguous ends of two axes 7'. One of said axes will thus be adapted to support one roll of paper between the intermediate bearing and one of the end bearings C, while the other axis will be capable of similarly supporting a second roll between said intermediate bearing I and the other end bearing-piece O. The situation of the bearing I between said end bearings will determine the relative lengths of said rolls and the sizes of paper furnished thereby, and the bearing I may be readily adjusted in position as may be desired to furnish the required sizes of wrapping material.

The two rolls last described will bear against and the paper will be cut by the same fixed tension-bar and knife, and the consumption of each roll may continue and its size be diminished independently of the other, which cannot occur where two rolls are mounted in line upon fixed axes and are operated upon by a single tension-bar and knife, unless paper is used from both rolls at exactly the same rate.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is 1. In a paperholding and severing machine, the combination of bearingpieces for the journal of the roll, a tension bar against which the roll is adapted to bear, and a knife having openings K, and normally situated at a distance from the surface of the roll when the latter is in place and in contact with said tension-bar, whereby the free edge of the paper may be readily grasped to draw off the desired quantity, substantially as set forth.

2. Inapaper holding and severing machine,

the combination, with means for holding the roll, of a bar against which the free edge of the paper passes and is adapted to be held, and a pivoted bar or part provided with an edge and having a pawl action to hold the paper against said first-mentioned bar to prevent its backward movement, as set forth.

3. The combination, with the bearing-pieces for the journal of the roll, the tension-bar, and the knife, of an intermediate bearing-piece having a base-flange for securing it at any desired point between the end standards free at its upper end, whereby a plurality of independent rolls of difierent lengths or different paper may be applied to the same bar and knife, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination, with the bearin g-pieces for the journal of the roll, the tension-bar, and the knife, of an intermediate bearingpiece having a base-flange for securing it at any desired point between the end standards and free at its upper end and provided with. lateral arms P, whereby a plurality of independent rolls of different lengths or different paper may be applied to the same bar and knife, substantially as set forth.

5. In apaper holding and severing machine, the combination, with a longitudinal bar against which the unrolled paper is-adapted to bear, and a retaining-pawl adapted to prevent the return of the paper and backward movement of the roll, substantially as set forth.

6. In a paperholding and severing machine, the combination, with the roll and the knife, of a double tension-bar having two edges differently situated, against one of which the roll is adapted to bear when of large diameter, and against the other of which it is adapted to bear when reduced in diameter, to secure uniformity of tension, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in the presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD o. roan. GEORGE T. JACOBS.

Witnesses:

H. N. LOW, W. H. II. COOPER. 

